In an apparent effort to brush aside the label 'president of the rich', President Macron decided to reaffirm that he is a 'man of the people'.

"I'm not an heir," the president said on Thursday.

"If I had been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, or the son of a politician, you could have a go at me. But that's not the case."

He made the remarks in the town of Bourg-de-Peage during the third round of 'national debates', a series of town hall-like events the authorities hope will help to foster compromise with the Yellow Vest protesters and other critics of the government. Some, however, find it hard to buy Macron's 'I'm one of you' message.

"He obviously doesn't come from lower-income brackets like some of us do," a woman told RT on the streets of Paris.

"He can't understand the everyday problems of French people living on minimum wage," another Parisian said.

"But it's not really important what he says now. His future actions will define his presidency."

Not exactly a man of humble upbringing, Macron comes from a well-off family. Prior to first joining the government as minister of economy and finance, he was an investment banker with Rothschild & Cie Banque.

"He studied in elite schools, as aristocrats do. He was 'made' there. The French elite is created this way," a man told RT.

Even if the president is right about not being born into the elite, his milieu most certainly was, another said.

"Throughout his career Macron has networked with people who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. I think he is more a president for the rich. He is a 'puppet' of the big banks."

In the eyes of his critics, Macron well deserves the 'president of the rich' tag after scrapping the wealth tax, claiming it will prevent capital flight and boost the French economy.

The dam, situated near the town of Brumadinho in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, was burst on Friday. 300 people are still missing and 370 have been rescued.

It is not yet clear what caused the failure of the dam, which is owned by Vale, Brazil's largest mining company.

On Saturday, emergency services used helicopters and earth-moving machinery in the search for survivors.Only a small number of the victims has so far been identified.

The disaster comes only three years after a similar failure of the Fundão Tailings dam near Mariana, which was co-owned by Vale.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, who flew over the disaster area in a helicopter on Saturday, tweeted that it was hard not to get "emotional" after seeing the scale of the devastation.

He said he had accepted an offer by Israel to send search equipment that could find people buried in the mud.

The local fire services have commented that they don't expect to find any more survivors.

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